The iPod Touch, now in its 5th generation hardly needs an introduction. This is a 4" iPhone substitute that does everything except make cellular calls (VoIP calls with Skype and FaceTime are a go). With the iPod Touch 5G you get the iPhone 5's 1136 x 640 Retina display married to the iPhone 4S' internals. That's not a bad combo, but as ever, the iPod Touch is always a generation behind the latest iPhone when it comes to CPU and GPU.

The iPod Touch sports a new and attractive unibody aluminum design that's available in five colors plus Product Red for a total of six. You can go with stately black or grab the neon-satiny pink like we did. The front face is white with the signature single belly-button below the display. The iPod Touch has always been a very thin device and this one is no exception at 0.24". It weighs just 3.1 ounces yet it doesn't feel cheap. It does disappear easily in a pocket, and that's a good thing for a product that still functions as an excellent portable music player (and much more). Though I liked the mirrored look of the fourth gen iPod Touch, the fifth gen seems more immune to scratches, the bane of the fourth gen.

The iPod Touch runs on an 800MHz dual core Apple A5 CPU with a dual core CPU, just like the iPhone 4S and it benchmarks similarly. If you're upgrading from the now long in the tooth single core fourth gen, you'll really appreciate the speed increase when gaming (it's noticeable). The iPod Touch runs iOS 6 and that means you get Siri for voice interactions, iMessages, the notification center, DND and (for better or worse) Apple's Maps rather than Googles. Since the iPod Touch lacks a GPS and does WiFi triangulation for location, we're not sure how much you'll care about mapping.

The latest iPod Touch ships with Apple's new EarPods, a Lightning USB cable and a lanyard in matching color that affixes to the new pop-up lanyard mount. It has a 5 megapixel rear camera with LED flash and HDR as well as 1080p video recording. There's a front FaceTime HD 720p camera as well. It's available in 32 and 64 gig capacities and is priced at $299 and $399. Gone is the 16 gig $199 option, and that's a shame since the iPod Touch is now a pricey purchase.